The redevelopment’s conceptual master plan was approved by Burnaby City Council in September 2013 and will transform the mall site into a dense, highly active and animated walkable urban neighbourhood and entertainment district.

This project is a major step towards the City’s long-term vision of creating a town centre around Brentwood Town Centre Station, very much like the development and mega-sized mall that has sprung around Metrotown Station. Burnaby has implemented transit-oriented policies, taking full advantage of the SkyTrain routes to cross the city – to ensure much of its population and job growth is sustainable.

Image: Shape Properties

While the municipality has approved the conceptual master plan for the redevelopment, a rezoning application is required for each part of the project.

The Brentwood project, by developer and mall owner Shape Properties, will be built in four phases over 20-years. It will bring 350 new shops and restaurants to the shopping centre’s site and will include ten towers including two office towers between 30 to 40 storeys tall and a 50,000 square-foot grocery store. The remaining towers will be residential with up to 4,200 units to house as many as 8,400 people.

Phase 1 of the ‘Amazing Brentwood’

The Amazing Brentwood, the first phase of the project, is 8-acres in size on a parking lot located next to the SkyTrain station on the corner of Willingdon Avenue and Lougheed Highway. It will establish a new 1 acre public plaza facing the SkyTrain station entrance on the corner of the intersection that could hold programmable activity and large-scale events.

Image: Shape Properties

It will be developed as an extensive outdoor pedestrian shopping area with high-end retail outlets that could include interactive public art, landscaped areas, street furniture, restaurants, bars, cafes and a major movie theatre.

Image: Shape Properties

The project will be seamlessly integrated with the SkyTrain entrance while a new ‘high street’ will run along the length of the entire 28-acre site between the first phase development and existing indoor shopping centre.

Image: Shape Properties

Image: Shape Properties

Image: Shape Properties

Two 60-storey towers, which could rival the height of some of downtown Vancouver’s tallest skyscrapers, will also flank this first phase. The lower seven storeys will be used for commercial purposes and the remaining 53-storeys for residential. Both towers will go to public hearing later this year.

However, the Amazing Brentwood is not the only major redevelopment project slated for Burnaby. Station Square adjacent to Metropolis at Metrotown shopping centre is now a large excavation site to construct new commercial spaces and five residential towers up to 57-storeys in height.

Another seven towers are proposed for an 8.9-acre parking lot site facing Kingsway at Metropolis at Metrotown. The $1-billion project will include a major retail expansion and outdoor public spaces such as plazas.

Just a few stops east on the SkyTrain Millennium Line, Shape Properties has also recently purchased the entire Lougheed Mall site (next to Lougheed Town Centre Station) and several other nearby properties with intentions to redevelop. The scope of the Lougheed Mall redevelopment will be similar to the company’s approved master plans for the Brentwood Mall site.

Image: Shape Properties

Image: Shape Properties

Image: Shape Properties

Image: Shape Properties

Image: Shape Properties

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DH Vancouver Staff

Daily Hive is the evolution of Vancity Buzz, established in Vancouver in 2008. In 2016, the publication rebranded and opened newsrooms in Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal. Send story tips to [email protected]